Most Absurd Stuff in Dragon Magazine?

[LordOfCain]

I would like to know what you guys think the most absurd stuff in Dragon Magazine is. My pick is the house brownie from Dragon Magazine #331.

[Zanos]

I know there's more, but off the top of my head:

Half-Minotaur Half-Ogres.
Easy Metamagic.
Magic-Blooded template, and the other LA 0 templates with it.

[Ramza00]

Int to HP instead of Con as long as you are the right race and you have sex with the "right partner" who also have this feat. 4 hours of normal elf trance / sleep and 15 mins of sex. You then gain the benefits of Int to HP instead of Con for an unspecified amount of time / ? 24 hours? / ? Permanent ?

The Feat is called Faerie Mysteries Innate.

[137beth]

Chicken Infested may qualify, though since it was from an April 1st issue some people give it a pass.

[Zanos]

Int to HP instead of Con as long as you are the right race and you have sex with the "right partner" who also have this feat. 4 hours of normal elf trance / sleep and 15 mins of sex. You then gain the benefits of Int to HP instead of Con for an unspecified amount of time / ? 24 hours? / ? Permanent ?

The Feat is called Faerie Mysteries Innate.
Granted effects last until the next time you perform the Faerie Mysteries.

So yeah, Int instead of Con for HP forever. And of course, Grey Elves, probably the best wizard race already, qualify for it automatically.

[Nifft]

IIRC the same article that had Faerie Mysteries also had Troll-Blooded, which isn't that bad on its own, but can be used in combo with an immunity to non-lethal to become immune to damage.

[LordOfCain]

IIRC the same article that had Faerie Mysteries also had Troll-Blooded, which isn't that bad on its own, but can be used in combo with an immunity to non-lethal to become immune to damage.

The same article? Dang... :smalleek:

[Nifft]

The same article? Dang... :smalleek:

It was a good article.

[LordOfCain]

It was a good article.
For fighters AND wizards...

[Telonius]

Chicken Infested may qualify, though since it was from an April 1st issue some people give it a pass.
I think that same article gave us the "Delicious" flaw, "Weresheep," "Pig Bond," and "Peasant Hat."

[Bronk]

Also from Dragon 331, making a floating aircraft by hollowing out a dead beholder, complete with the ability to use some of it's eye rays.

[Anthrowhale]

This is my list of most memorable things. Some of it is not broken, but some of it is, especially in combination.

310: Pugilist Fighter ACF: only take nonlethal damage (like regeneration, but for all forms of lethal damage)
311: Arcane Disciple: Cleric with wizard spell access
313: Mind Mage PRC: Psion/Wizard theurge granting high bonuses to caster level
313: Gheden template: LA+1 grants immunity to nonlethal damage.
313: Riddled Dragon Psychoses: Int+6, Chr-4, Int based casting for dragons.
314: Heartfire Fanner PRC: Grant L5 bardic music and the ability to bestow _any_ fighter feat.
318: Keen Intellect Feat: +Int-Wis for Heal, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Will
318: Spyglass Eye Graft: No -1/10' to 150' for spot
319: Rope-dart Exotic Weapon: Reach to 15', also threatens near, 1d4 piercing (or 1d4 Bludgeoning), Trip
319: Faerie mysteries Initiate: +Int-Con to HP
319: Kung Fu Genius: +Int-Wis to Monk abilities.
325: Theurgic Specialist Feat: Caster level in school = sum of caster levels from all classes
325: Customize Domain Feat: Swap spells. Magic domain => all but 9th level spells are divine
330: Finger of Explusion Spell: L7, Not-death death spell
333: Knowstones Items: Extra spells for sorcerers
335: Totem Druid ACF: Wild shape to only totem animal @L1, Dire@L6, free natural spell
335: Supremely Confident Feat: Use Perform(Act) to Demoralize as free action on critical hit
337: Clock of Khyber Spell: Defeat Truesight!
339: Metamixture Feat: Use Metapsionic feat for spell (Burrowing Spells!)
343: Tome Dragon Monster: Free +4 Metamagic
343: Divine Sorcery Feat: Gain a domain and access to domain spells as a sorcerer.
345: Telepathic Strike Spell. 1d6 Int/Wis/Cha damage to someone anywhere
349: Psiotheurgist Feat: Caster level in school/Discipline = Caster level + Manifester Level
349: Fearsome Gaze Barbarian ACF: use Str for Intimidate
353: Trickster Spellthief ACF: Cast spells as a bard
354: Kissed by the ages Spell: Live forever
357: Spell Sovereign PRC: Make and awaken living spells
357: Eidetic Spellcaster Wizard ACF: No spellbook wizard
358: Slimy Spell Metamagic Feat: +Refl save or Nauseate 1 round, Level+1 (works on undead!)

[Zanos]

310 also has martial monk, which lets monks take fighter feats but doesn't remove their ability to ignore prereqs, which lets you do some silly stuff.

[Inevitability]

So yeah, Int instead of Con for HP forever. And of course, Grey Elves, probably the best wizard race already, qualify for it automatically.

Gray Elves the best wizard? Don't be ridiculous.

Dragonborn Gray Elf, though... :smalltongue:

[TiaC]

The Truename feat from Dragon 317. It carries some risks, but it allows you to add your casting stat to your DCs a second time, adds your casting stat to caster level checks and adds your casting stat as a bonus to your CL vs dispel. If you make a spell completion item, it functions as if you were casting the spell yourself, and all items you make add your casting stat as a bonus against being dispelled.

[LordOfCain]

Dang... this is some pretty cool stuff...

[Jowgen]

310: Pugilist Fighter ACF: only take nonlethal damage (like regeneration, but for all forms of lethal damage)
[...]
313: Riddled Dragon Psychoses: Int+6, Chr-4, Int based casting for dragons.
314: Heartfire Fanner PRC: Grant L5 bardic music and the ability to bestow _any_ fighter feat.
[...]
337: Clock of Khyber Spell: Defeat Truesight!


The description for the Pugilist's ability for this actually makes no sense, using bad sentence structure and words that have neither game defintion nor a clear meaning in context.The "immunity to lethal damage" interpretation is the sad result of people trying to find meaning in a sentence that has none. It's an ability that is unusable as written, because of how poorly it is written, to the point that inferring the function of the ability as intended is actually impossible. I actually suspect there was some kind of incident involving auto-correct on a phone, a cat walking on a keyboard, and/or some kind of office-accident cover up.

That being said, Pugilist is also great for free Endurance and IUS feats in addition to the 1st level fighter bonus feat. Great for prerequesite meeting.

Riddled Dragon is great, though I am partial from the Spellhoarding dragon from the same article. Wizard casting, good although not as quite stat boosts, and a slew of abilities that allow for the generation of infinite spellcasting gp/exp. Plus the flavour is great.

Heartfire Fanner is a beauty, and it's a shame it doesn't get used more often. In my book, it's not even overpowered, but rather the only PrC that makes bardic music into what it was always supposed to be.

Cloak of Khyber actually also appears in City of Stormreach, that book with the odd gems that always gets forgotten despite being one of the most recent ones. The spell itself is actually quite vital in my book, as non-exploitative True Seeing counters are something that is sorely needed in the face of that anti-illusion "I win" button.


The Truename feat from Dragon 317. It carries some risks, but it allows you to add your casting stat to your DCs a second time, adds your casting stat to caster level checks and adds your casting stat as a bonus to your CL vs dispel. If you make a spell completion item, it functions as if you were casting the spell yourself, and all items you make add your casting stat as a bonus against being dispelled.

Jeez. With the Truenamer excuse for a class and the Words of Creation version of Truenames, that now makes for 3 completely seperate Truenaming mechanics in game. I shudder that at hackjob one would need to do to make them into one actually workable thing. :smalleek:

[Nifft]

I actually suspect there was some kind of incident involving auto-correct on a phone, a cat walking on a keyboard, and/or some kind of office-accident cover up.
"We lost another intern."

"My god. What happened?"

"She fell into the giant Xerox machine."

"Quick, publish the Pugilist. Nobody will notice the accident."


Riddled Dragon is great, though I am partial from the Spellhoarding dragon from the same article. Wizard casting, good although not as quite stat boosts, and a slew of abilities that allow for the generation of infinite spellcasting gp/exp. Plus the flavour is great. Spellhoard psychosis is also my favorite.

As written, I think it allows you to use Spellcatch to catch ANY arcane spell -- perhaps any spell at all -- and once you've caught a spell, you can use your Wizard casting to prepare & cast any caught spells.

I think.


Jeez. With the Truenamer excuse for a class and the Words of Creation version of Truenames, that now makes for 3 completely seperate Truenaming mechanics in game. I shudder that at hackjob one would need to do to make them into one actually workable thing. :smalleek:

Or we could have a death-match to sort out which one is the TRUE Truename mechanic.

[Anthrowhale]

The description for the Pugilist's ability for this actually makes no sense, using bad sentence structure and words that have neither game defintion nor a clear meaning in context.The "immunity to lethal damage" interpretation is the sad result of people trying to find meaning in a sentence that has none.

Just to be clear, this is the cat walk part:

The pugilist develops non-lethal damage only...
Everything else seems unremarkable.

The two points of ambiguity are:

How do you interpret "develops"? I don't know how to interpret this as anything other than "The pugilist takes only nonlethal damage" which agrees with notion of nonlethal damage being a condition that "develops".
What happens to not-nonlethal damage? I believe the intention is that lethal damage is turned into nonlethal damage (i.e. half of what regeneration does) as this is the least powerful plausible choice and similar to the power level of the Troll-blooded feat (Dragon #319). But since that is not stated, the RAW would be that every source of damage other than nonlethal does not apply.

[Flickerdart]

Jeez. With the Truenamer excuse for a class and the Words of Creation version of Truenames, that now makes for 3 completely seperate Truenaming mechanics in game. I shudder that at hackjob one would need to do to make them into one actually workable thing. :smalleek:

Don't forget dark speech!

[KillingAScarab]

I came here just to third pugilist. That thing is so ridiculous I don't think I could suggest using it in a game even in a fever dream.

[Stealth Marmot]

They let some guy get away with making a comic strip that was just stick figures and they still published it.